Humanitarian and development organizations working in conflict-affected settings have a particular responsibility to do no harm and contribute to the wellbeing of the population without bias. The highly complex, politicized realities of work in conflict- and post-conflict settings often require quick, pragmatic and results-oriented decisions, the foundations of which remain frequently implicit. Such decisions might follow an intrinsic logic or situational pragmatism rather than intensive deliberation.

The Annual Country Reviews reflect upon current land issues in the Mekong Region, and has been produced for researchers, practitioners and policy advocates operating in the field. Specialists have been selected from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam to briefly answer the following two questions:

1. What are the most pressing issues involving land governance in your country?

2. What are the most important issues for the researcher on land?

Tenure risk – or the risk of dispute between investors and local people over land or natural resource claims – is endemic in emerging markets. There are hundreds of recorded incidents of tenure disputes creating delays, violence, project cancellation and even bankruptcy at a corporate level. These tenure disputes create lose-lose outcomes for investors, local people and national governments while robbing emerging markets of the developmental benefits of responsible land investments.

New research by the Quantifying Tenure Risk (QTR) initiative has revealed that land disputes can cause losses of up to $101 million across a range of agricultural projects in Africa, while at the same time causing significant harm and stress to local communities who have a claim to the land.

In response, the initiative has developed a new publicly available economic modelling tool to accurately determine the potential cost of a dispute in a bid to help companies avoid harmful investments. 

Date: 7 mars 2019

Source: Farmlandgrab, FIAN Belgium

FIAN Belgium publie un nouveau rapport "Accaparement de terres et huile de palme en Sierra Leone : analyse du cas SOCFIN à la lumière des droits humains".

Résumé

The Afghanistan land sector is plagued by a multitude of problems linked to weak governance, corruption and lack of capacity. There are competing claims to land, widespread conflicts, resultant landlessness and poverty. Other issues are limited availability of undisputed farmland, difficulties in accessing grazing lands and many disputes over pasture lands. These issues are exacerbated by conflicting land ownership systems, insecure land tenure and registration, weak land governance environment and uncertain and incomplete legal frameworks.

GLOCON's new country Report examines the impact of industrial mining in Burkina Faso on the local population, focusing on the view of residents of six industrial mining locations. Surveys in the affected villages demonstrate that, in contrast to the promises of mining companies and state authorities, the opening of the mines has not improved the conditions of living in the villages. On the contrary, respondents emphasise negative impacts on their livelihoods and health, and that they feel disrespected by the mine operators.

A história de luta pela criação do Projeto de Assentamento (PA) de Reforma Agrária Cafundão está vinculada à  historicidade da concentração fundiária brasileira, que dá sentido de existência aos movimentos sociais pelo acesso à  terra. Como também, descreve particularmente uma luta pela efetivação de uma política brasileira específica, de forma a reconhecer a posse desta mesma terra ”“ que já era lugar de vida há gerações -, no âmbito de pressões imobiliárias e minerárias que a circundam.

Secure access to land and secure use of land, for housing-, agricultural- and other purposes is one of the cornerstones of making sustainable, positive development possible. As ZOA provides relief, hope and recovery to people impacted by conflicts and disasters, addressing land rights issues will need to be a permanent point of attention in our work.